The In-Between Times

A threat to the cohesion of the programs of a church during the absence of a pastor is the refocusing on Sundays and Wednesdays (or whatever days are your primary days of meeting). Though this is not a big deal for your congregation in the short run, it can create some negative habits in the long run. Members relegate their membership, participation, and personal ministry to the confines of those two days when they have done so for so long. We on the other hand, must use this shift in participation to shed some light on the ministries that can go on without a pastor.

When there is no noise, the smallest of sounds is clear to hear. When light doesn’t exist in a place, the smallest match can illuminate a room. The same is true about the absence of ministry. When a church remains idle for a period of time, any ministry that is visible in that dark place will shine bright and can help to reinvigorate your people for ministry on their own.

Keep in mind that this is not a ploy to get attention to refocus itself on you, nor is it a way to edge yourself closer to the pastor’s chair (each will be discussed later in this blog). This is a way to show the power of ministry. If we as leaders in the church shed light on ministry in the dark times, our church will become better able to see ministry in its true form. When we take youth to clean an elderly persons yard in the fall, or take our church choir to the nursing home, or we take our children’s ministry to the local children’s hospital for visitation, or we set up a car winterization program with our deacons, and we do these projects NOT ON SUNDAY, we illuminate their value to our group.

Not only are the events themselves more apparent by not being shoved into the Sunday Mix, but our people, being that they have to adjust their lives to participate, will better understand what an impact ministry can have on the people they serve as well as the people serving.

One event, done on a Tuesday evening…give it a shot and see how your group changes. See how their hearts become open, simply by opening their schedule.